Thirst for liquor levels them all

By P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 8. Nowhere else can one witness the spirit of camaraderie blooming in such luxuriance. Here, the Government under-secretary rubs shoulders with the headload worker and the business executive with the fish-monger, exchanging jokes and pleasantries.

They are common sufferers as the long queue inches its way to the payment counter and then to the desk across where the bottle is handed over.

Since April 1, when the new abkari policy came into effect, the regular as well as occasional consumers of the generous drink have been finding their daily routines totally overturned. For those who have tight daily schedules, with their hours and minutes divided judiciously between various tasks, the big question is how to squeeze in another hour or so for the wait in the winding queue before the Beverages Corporation outlet.

"Yesterday, I had to stand in the rain for one whole hour for a bottle of whisky", said the bespectacled, under-secretaryish- looking man in front, nursing a bad cold and sneezing like a truck with something wrong with its carburator.

The man with the rugged look of a headload worker patted him on the back and offered a nice recipe for warding off cold and fever. "You do it at the start and you won't know where the fever has disappeared. Mix a couple of measures of brandy with warm water, add a dash of pepper, stir well and take the whole thing in a single gulp", he said.

The section-officer who has sneaked out of his office an hour in advance comes across his skulking peon in the queue and smiles. "You don't have to stand here, sir. I shall get the bottle for you", the peon says respectfully.

The scene is the same at all the four outlets of the Beverages Corporation in the city. The queues before the outlet near the Overbridge at Thampanur and at Pulimoodu even create traffic jams during the evening hours on working days. The third outlet is at Pazhavangadi. The fourth, located at Pettah (see picture) is better suited for those who are keen about having a little secrecy attached to their drinking habit since it is situated beneath the rail overbridge there. It offers good cover.

According to sources, the four outlets presently functioning in the city are supposed to fulfil the role of 22 outlets which used to exist in the city till March 31. Blackmarketing, at a margin of 15 to 20 per cent, thrives on the fringes of the queues. There are dozens of men in the city who have obviously selected lining up before the Beverages Corporation outlets as a lucrative new profession.

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Section  : Southern States
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